If you were to compare an engine of today with one built, say for instance 50 years ago, no doubt much will have changed. Cylinder head layout, block construction, pistons, rods and cranks have all changed in their various ways. But the one component that is outwardly very similar, having changed very little in that time, is the camshaft. That is not to say there has been little development over the years. Hollow cams, smaller cams, bigger cams, even multiple cams per valve have all been tried and adopted to some extent but when it comes down to it, how many variations of getting a series Read more…
Archive for September, 2009
A Material World
Sunday, September 13th, 2009BEARING THE BRUNT
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
For all of its engine bearing needs in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) engines, PME Engines of Mooresville, North Carolina has researched heavily to meet its main and rod end requirements.
On a mile-and-a-half oval like Chicagoland Speedway, where the CWTS raced the final weekend of August, PME owner Mark Smith acknowledged that he is “always fighting temperatures because they never lift here. They’re running wide open throttle all the time, so the temperatures are always up and you always have Read more…
Pin Critical
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
The article on Advanced Metals last month looked at some of the titanium alloys currently being used in racing engines, and some of the alloys currently under development. The article mentioned that, despite restrictions on the introduction of new materials in Formula One, the engine manufacturers continue to invest time and resources to investigate materials development. The two main uses for titanium in racing engines currently are con rods and valves, although there have been efforts to replace most components that have traditionally been made in steel.
